[FONT=Times New Roman]This is my anticipated Opening Day rotation: Pelfrey, Worley, Gibson, holdover Scott Diamond and journeyman Kevin Correia. As journeymen go, I'd take Correia over last year's trial horse and error, Jason Marquis.[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman]That five would be far better than anything the Twins offered up as a rotation the past two seasons.[/FONT]

Wow, I don't see it. The biggest piece I see totally differently is how he feels about the starting rotation going into last season compared to this one. Last season we had:
Pavano (who we thought would be an innings eater and compete)
Liriano (who we thought might have a bounce back year)
Baker (who we thought could have a really good year)
Blackburn (who because he had an injury healed we thought he might be okay)
Marquis (who I thought would be an okay 5th starter).

This year, there isn't a single one of the starters who I feel confident will go 180 innings and be effective. I am concerned about injuries with Worley and Diamond. Pelfrey and Gibson are both coming back from serious surgery, and Correria (sp?) is similar to Marquis. Plus our offense and defense will take a step back based on the losses of Revere and Span.

Hendriks will go north with the team over Gibson IMO. The Twins would be making a huge mistake not to allow Gibson some time at AAA and get an extra year of team control. If there was a chance the Twins would compete I could see it, but bringing Hicks and Gibson north would be stupid stupid stupid stupid.

Wow, I don't see it. The biggest piece I see totally differently is how he feels about the starting rotation going into last season compared to this one. Last season we had:Pavano (who we thought would be an innings eater and compete)Liriano (who we thought might have a bounce back year)Baker (who we thought could have a really good year)Blackburn (who because he had an injury healed we thought he might be okay)Marquis (who I thought would be an okay 5th starter).

This year, there isn't a single one of the starters who I feel confident will go 180 innings and be effective. I am concerned about injuries with Worley and Diamond. Pelfrey and Gibson are both coming back from serious surgery, and Correria (sp?) is similar to Marquis. Plus our offense and defense will take a step back based on the losses of Revere and Span.

Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer.

Every one of those starters failed. That is the difference. We felt going into the year last year that the Twins could be competitive with those starters, maybe a bubble playoff team. Things fell apart pretty quickly. It's almost a guarantee this rotation will outperform last season. That is what Reusse is suggesting.

I am optimistic that at least one pitcher will improve and that 3 starting pitchers will be solid and give the staff at least 3 12 game winners Worely, Diamond and ???. I also think the bullpen will be solid again. the big question is whether CF, SS and 2B will we be able to have at least 2 decent seasons from the 3 lineup spots. beyond that its just a matter of health and how will the other 2 spots in the rotation fare? will we get 2 suprise pitchers and an adequate Correia? That will allow the Twins to be competetive. Can they do that? Sure but the odds are not in their favor on paper at the moment.

I don't know that the rotation is better on paper than it was a year ago, but they'll almost certainly perform better.

Absolutely. Hard to argue that the rotation won't be better (even if some of us would have liked to see more done with it than was). A lot of people focus on that and think the team will be better overall just for that, but that assumes the lineup is going to be at least the same and that too often defense is getting ignored.

The big lineup/defense question for me is will the CF/RF combo of Hicks(?)/Parmelee not only match Span/Revere offensively but do enough with the bat to make up for their definitely weaker defense? For me, it's very likely a downgrade overall but even just offensively unless Hicks is more than ready.

For me, because of shifts like that and other questions (no real backup plan at SS, for example), the team might not be better overall than last year.

Improving this rotation wasn't exactly challenging, the problem is that the lineup and defense have been significantly downgraded. What will be interesting is to see how much the VERY modest improvements to the rotation offset the fact that we have a bunch of plodding oafs playing defense for them.

Improving this rotation wasn't exactly challenging, the problem is that the lineup and defense have been significantly downgraded. What will be interesting is to see how much the VERY modest improvements to the rotation offset the fact that we have a bunch of plodding oafs playing defense for them.

The infield defense should be better, shouldn't it? Yes the OF defense certainly took a hit. Span/Revere = Hicks/Parmelee in the lineup, IMO. In any case, I don't see 'significant' downgrades for lineup and infield defense, in fact, I think we could argue that each could improve.